Cells, Circuits, Symbiosis

This series of three explores what is human, what is technology, and where the lines blur. I started with an acrylic ground on each masonite panel. I used a laser cutter to etch different outlines onto each panel. The outlines were human cells (seen in "Cells"), circuits (seen in "Circuits"), and a warped combination of cells and circuits (seen in "Symbiosis"). I worked back into the etched panels with acrylic paint, gold ink, and crayon.

I couldn’t have created these works without modern technology, but they also needed my hand as the artist. Similarly, once we get past the initial “otherness” of new technology, we modify our lives to incorporate it. At the same time, we are the ones shaping what we choose to create. The relationship becomes at once fraught, constantly evolving, and symbiotic, just like how pacemakers, Siri, microchip implants, face recognition, have merged their way into our lives.

Cells

Acrylic paint, gold ink, crayon. “6.5 x 6.75,” 2017

Circuits

Acrylic paint, gold ink, crayon. 8.75” x 8”, 2017.

Symbiosis

Acrylic paint, gold ink, crayon. 5.75" x 8.5", 2017.

Cyto-worlds

I used a drawing tablet to trace outlines of cross-sections of human lung cells for the Harvard School of Public Health. The red outlines you see here are only a small subset of the more than 80 tracings I completed for them. The lab used my tracings to analyze the relationships between the cells.

I took my data-driven tracings and used them as a starting point to create abstracted, fantastical cyto-worlds. I created these layered digital drawings in Photoshop (scroll down).